SonicStage does not work with my Windows 7

[Messie]

As you can read, it does not work good. When I choose to delete files, SonicStage disconnects the media. I cannot transfer any songs to my MP3Player. What is wrong? I have various programs with Vista compability and they do just fine, but not SonicStage. Can you help me?

[Barnum]

One of my worries with window 7 was sonic stage not working, but all was fine with beta and then RC1 versions, I now use the Home Premium and all is fine. Try running compatability mode with XP instead of Vista, if that doesnt work uninstall SonicStage and reinstall, dont drop a copy on top of what you have ( I think it uninstalls anyway..) If you havent already.

One more thing, have you a different USB port you could use, I have one that is a devil at times and is never used anymore.

[Avrin]

Which version? Which player?

[Lothlorien]

Is this version 0f win 7 32 bit, or is it 64 bit? (on a new machine it would probably be 64 bit I guess).

[Bribaba]

I'm having the same problem using Windows 7 with SS 4.3 and a NW-HD5. I'm getting 'system restore' errors. When I try to fix this using Sonic Stage prompts this doesn't work either (no surprise there). Googling showed that many users are having the same problem. The alternative MP3 File Manager does not work, either. I get 'device' not recognised errors. Again, this appears to be a common problem. It seems like NW HD5/Win 7 users are being left up the creek without a paddle. So, can anyone tell me how I can manage my files within the player?

[Kristain Hayes]

I have a sony atrac device that does not support MP3. I was using sonic stage that worked fine for transferring files on to my device but now I upgraded to windows 7, I can't get sonic stage to work, I have also tried the virtual PC with windows xp installed and this won't recognize the sony device in XP mode.

[sfbp]

I have a sony atrac device that does not support MP3. I was using sonic stage that worked fine for transferring files on to my device but now I upgraded to windows 7, I can't get sonic stage to work, I have also tried the virtual PC with windows xp installed and this won't recognize the sony device in XP mode.

I haven't done this but somehow I think you need to get the right drivers installed into the virtual XP mode. This should be transparent, but I have a feeling that you need to do the install into the XP virtual machine, rather than an install into Windows7 and then subsequently trying to run the application in the XP VM.

Be careful that your music database (if it is non-trivial in size) is backed up somehow. Reinstalling will cause the encryption to get clobbered, and your "new" system won't, I think, be able to play or transfer the songs you have (in the PC). Probably this means running the File Conversion Tool, which is highly recommended on a regular basis anyway, since any System Restore usually causes the same problem.

Best to tell us exactly what device you have, and we can advise you more precisely.

Welcome to the forums.

Stephen

[Bribaba]

The latest version of Sonic Stage will not work under Win 7, as many users will verify. When I try to run it box pops up something to do with checking restore. But when I lick OK the box goes blank and then nothing. Is there a solution for this?

[sfbp]

The latest version of Sonic Stage will not work under Win 7, as many users will verify.

That is absolutely an untrue statement.

Please stick to the facts and we will try to help you.

What can be said is that:

- certain aspects of Sonic Stage (NetMD)

- certain versions of Windows 7 (Home basic or premium 64-bits only)

- certain (hardware) units

do not work together.

I had great luck doing almost everything under Win7. Even NetMD. But I was running W32, which most people are avoiding (because the manufacturer of their new computer went ahead and installed W64). W64 under Vista was just as bad, but W64 was not the default version. Most people with Vista had W32, and so never noticed.

Microsoft has handled this problem by coming out with a free download for the non-basic versions. This download allows you to run a Virtual PC containing a "free" copy of Windows XP that will host the applications, like Sonic Stage, that were designed for 32 bit operation.

Sony is rumoured to be coming out with proper support for the MZ-RH1 "any time now". However it may well be that if you don't have one (or an MZ-M200 as they are known with microphone bundled) that you are out of luck.

If you tell us

- your MD Walkman model number

- your Windows 7 Software version

- your Sonic Stage version

- what you are hoping to be able to do

We will try to help.

Stephen

[Bribaba]

That is absolutely an untrue statement.

Please stick to the facts and we will try to help you.

What can be said is that:

- certain aspects of Sonic Stage (NetMD)

- certain versions of Windows 7 (Home basic or premium 64-bits only)

- certain (hardware) units

do not work together.

I had great luck doing almost everything under Win7. Even NetMD. But I was running W32, which most people are avoiding (because the manufacturer of their new computer went ahead and installed W64). W64 under Vista was just as bad, but W64 was not the default version. Most people with Vista had W32, and so never noticed.

Microsoft has handled this problem by coming out with a free download for the non-basic versions. This download allows you to run a Virtual PC containing a "free" copy of Windows XP that will host the applications, like Sonic Stage, that were designed for 32 bit operation.

Sony is rumoured to be coming out with proper support for the MZ-RH1 "any time now". However it may well be that if you don't have one (or an MZ-M200 as they are known with microphone bundled) that you are out of luck.

If you tell us

- your MD Walkman model number

- your Windows 7 Software version

- your Sonic Stage version

- what you are hoping to be able to do

We will try to help.

Stephen

Windows Home Premium OS

Sony NW HD5

Sonic Stage 4.3

I've also tried SS 3.1 from disk, neither will load. What I said was 'Sonic Stage does not work with my Windows 7. This is factually correct and not 'absolutely untrue'.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[sfbp]

Windows Home Premium OS

Sony NW HD5

Sonic Stage 4.3

I've also tried SS 3.1 from disk, neither will load. What I said was 'Sonic Stage does not work with my Windows 7. This is factually correct and not 'absolutely untrue'.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Thanks for the information - so anything I said about NetMD can be ignored. Pity that wasn't mentioned either in the original post.

I will not debate this further with you; please read your own posting. I don't doubt that is what you intended to say - but it wasn't what you said.

I also asked what you were trying to do. When you tell us, please stand by so we can tell you how and what to REMOVE from your disk so that you can get it working.

Note that copying the music files from a previous Windows install will NOT work. Need a lot more detail to advise you. It may be that some of what you need to do will involve going back to your "old" computer running XP and following certain steps (nothing you can read about in Sony's documentation). If you can't do that, you've lost your music most likely.

If you only want to install a new version of Sonic Stage on a new version of Windows and don't have any music you need to save then life should be easy. You must uninstall any remnants of SonicStage 3.1, for sure.

Also when trying 4.3 recommend you use Avrin's "Ultimate" version which supercedes Sony's in several important regards. It's available somewhere here on the forums and no one has yet failed to get working with it.

But to run on W7, you MUST download the "W32 compatibility layer" to install Sonic Stage on. It may or may not be possible to do that with Windows Home Premium 64-bits. There are posters here who claim to have done it. The official Microsoft site http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare/default.aspx claims that you need the Pro version.

Good luck! You may find it simpler to go back to your old machine.

Stephen

[Focus]

Wow I'm glad I stumbled onto this thread!

I'm running XP with SS 4.3 and M-Crew at the moment. I avoided upgrading to Vista because of feared compatibility issues with the OS running SS/NetMD and talking to my MDS-JB980 & CMT-M333NT.

My PC is on it's last legs and I'm speccing a new Win7 64 system because I heard about the virtual XP mode it has.

Stephen, you seem to be the man on this topic so should I go for a Win7 32 system build instead? Or are there just too many compatibility issues and I should keep my XP 32 OS and just upgrade my components?

I use SS to rip MD's mainly and as a music library, so the NetMD function is essential for me. I also do not have a concern starting from scratch with regards to updating the music library as it's currently a mess and I'm installing a NAS with the new system that I want to use for all the SS media.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[sfbp]

Nice gear you got there!

In particular the CMT-M333NT, as I am currently trying to get the bottom of how M-Crew works. Maybe you can help me in due course. Question: can you make it talk to your JB980? And if so, how?

I think W32 should be fine. I certainly rushed out and got new XP machines when I discovered the new shipments were all going to be W64. Hardware virtualization which is needed to run Virtual PC properly is (was) not implemented on most of the current Intel chips when I checked about 1 year ago. OTOH Win7 may actually *need* the 64-bits to run comfortably. I've only played with the release candidate (which expired back in June) and it was fine running 32 bits on the same machines I currently run other 32-bit Windows on. And all the ATRAC stuff.

I eventually settled on an HTPC with lots of content on one of my networked machines here (in the house). As you have read the most important thing is to get rid of the dratted encryption so you can experience the glory of ATRAC from any client machine instead of it being locked to the one it was ripped on. But I expect you've already conquered that one. The other trick was getting the right setup on the HTPC so that there was no sampling upconversion of the signal from 44.1KHz to 48 (common and used by video sound) when you play from the HTPC. This doesn't matter for LPCM, but for compressed sound such as ATRAC I think it matters quite a bit.

Good to hear from you

Stephen

[Focus]

Thanks for the quick reply,

I've been an MD fan since '98 or so but since about '05 I have made it my mission to run everything on MD. I think this was as a bit of a rebellion from the ipod and itunes (which I have never owned and refuse to use). All of a sudden Apple came out with a portable music player and the next thing everyone couldn't go anywhere without their music and made a real point of saying so. I was like 'us MD people have been doing this for years' nothing new here. So now I love driving to the snow with my ipod mates and a mix up MD playing in the car then getting out and throwing that same MD in my portable and listening to it while I ride, then I can get hame and put the same MD on in the lounge room. Try doing that on your ipod. Removable media is the way to go. I may also have a thing for minority formats too as I am also a Laser Disc collector...

Rant over.

I LOVE my CMT-M333NT it works pretty much as an off-board sound card for my PC. Just plug in the USB cable and you can switch to the "PC" input on the unit and crank the awesome quality through those speakers. The NetMD function means that when ever I want to create an MD from SS it's already plugged in and waiting for me and with M-Crew all of the systems controls appear in a neat toolbar at the top of the screen. You can change inputs play stuff, adjust volume all from the mouse, pretty much anything you can do do with the remote is on screen.

I have the MDS-JB980 connected through a long USB repeater to the lounge room but as far as I know it's not M-Crew compatible. That being said, you do have control of the deck through SS when it is the active NetMD device and can play music remotely that way (Very cool).

On the Win7 issue again I saw that in another post titled "Windows 7 64-bit Sonicstage 4.3" you said in reply to a post stating that SS4.3 would work with Win764 "Sure, as long as you don't need NetMD compatibility. Presumably all of these devices speak Atrac3+, perhaps you conld confirm that it's possible/not-possible to upload from SP disk on RH1?"

NetMD is vital to my new PC so I just wanted to make sure this would work in a Win7 64/32 OS?

PS - I looked into the HTPC option but it was just a bit much for me at the moment as I don't really have any downloaded movies to stream as I prefer the old fashioned hard copies. Any video media I do have I can just stream through the X-Box 360 so that's doing the job for now. I did not know about the problems with sharing SS media to different users though. I'll be installing a small NAS and was planning on having that as the media hub so what was it that I need to be careful of here to ensure all computers on the network can access the media?

Best,

[sfbp]

I LOVE my CMT-M333NT it works pretty much as an off-board sound card for my PC. Just plug in the USB cable and you can switch to the "PC" input on the unit and crank the awesome quality through those speakers.

If my CMT-PX3 wasn't off being fixed I would be doing the same, although I actually have optical out on 'puter so I just use the PX3 as a really nice amp with digital input. But the M-Crew thing is most interesting.

The NetMD function means that when ever I want to create an MD from SS it's already plugged in and waiting for me and with M-Crew all of the systems controls appear in a neat toolbar at the top of the screen. You can change inputs play stuff, adjust volume all from the mouse, pretty much anything you can do do with the remote is on screen.

This appears to be one of the only machines that does M-Crew and NetMD at the same time.

I have the MDS-JB980 connected through a long USB repeater to the lounge room but as far as I know it's not M-Crew compatible. That being said, you do have control of the deck through SS when it is the active NetMD device and can play music remotely that way (Very cool).

Too bad, or maybe it's a matter of driver config. I may pester you for the exact driver setup you have on that M333. That system is exactly what one should be able to do with MD. For now I have it with my HTPC instead. (but no direct access to control the MD)

On the Win7 issue again I saw that in another post titled "Windows 7 64-bit Sonicstage 4.3" you said in reply to a post stating that SS4.3 would work with Win764 "Sure, as long as you don't need NetMD compatibility. Presumably all of these devices speak Atrac3+, perhaps you conld confirm that it's possible/not-possible to upload from SP disk on RH1?"

Yes I have done it. But only on W7/32.

NetMD is vital to my new PC so I just wanted to make sure this would work in a Win7 64/32 OS?

I have done it with Win7/32. Others have done it with W7/64 using the compatibility layer (which is just XP in actual fact, running on a virtual machine). Make sure the manufacturer doesn't sell you a pup - one that is incapable of hardware virtualization (it's a matter of the CPU) or you will be cursing, I think. And you need the Pro version of W7 to be able to stick the 32bit layer in a virtual machine.

I did not know about the problems with sharing SS media to different users though. I'll be installing a small NAS and was planning on having that as the media hub so what was it that I need to be careful of here to ensure all computers on the network can access the media?

Detailed higher up this thread. You need to run the File Conversion Tool which has the unexpected option (and effect) of decrypting the files so they are no longer locked to one install of Windows on one PC.

[Focus]

This is the best forum ever.

Thanks Stephen.

Oh and a correction from me: If I'm running M-Crew on the CMT-M333NT and then start up SS and select it as the active device the M-Crew functionality switches off and the NetMD light illuminates on the front panel. Which makes sense really because while you are using it as an MD recorder to rip a disc you can't use the other functions anyway.

I have told the guy at the computer shop that I want to come in and test my programs and hardware on a similar system first so that I get a definite confirmation before I commit to the build.

PS - I have all original discs with my MD gear so if you need a driver I can burn you a copy or something.

Best,

[sfbp]

I probably have the driver, but I would like to see your configuration of USB drivers when loaded. There's an example in the manual for the cmt-c7nt on page 51. That manual is on the minidisc.org website at:

http://minidisc.org/manuals/sony/sony_cmtc7nt_operation_manual.pdf

A picture like that is probably a good start. We can do this by email? This machine may be quite important for understanding NetMD because it morphs from M-Crew to NetMD just as you describe. It's as if the PCLK-MN10(A) is part of the unit itself.

Cheers

[mappec]

Hello Guru,

Thanks for trying to help us ...

I've got a net-MD Mz-N707 ans a Hi-MD MZ-RH1.

And Windows 7 professionnal.

SonicStage 4.3 works fine with the RH1 and a Hi-MD disc.

I only use MDs to record lectures or lessons of music and to store them on my computer.

When I use a Hi-MD disc, it works fine.

But net-MD discs are not recognized either in the MZ-N707 or in the MZ-RH1.

I've tried do uninstall SS and re-install it after new download, I've also tried the PA-DRIVER-V.exe which is supposed to be a driver for net-md(s) and W Vista. But it did'n change anything.

Have you got any piece of advice for me, Guru ?? It would be fine !

Best thoughts from France...

[sfbp]

I've got a net-MD Mz-N707 ans a Hi-MD MZ-RH1.

And Windows 7 professionnal.

Have you got any piece of advice for me, Guru ?? It would be fine !

Best thoughts from France...

See this thread for the current state-of-the-art. It is designed to work for RH1 and someone claims to have got it going for N707.

Good luck!

[sfbp]

Just tested W7-32. It works 100% like XP, as far as NetMD and HiMD is concerned.